<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
                                                                                     
 h       t     t                ::       /     /                     t             / 
 h       t     t                ::      //    //                     t            // 
 h     ttttt ttttt ppppp sssss         //    //  y   y       sssss ttttt         //  
 hhhh    t     t   p   p s            //    //   y   y       s       t          //   
 h  hh   t     t   ppppp sssss       //    //    yyyyy       sssss   t         //    
 h   h   t     t   p         s  ::   /     /         y  ..       s   t    ..   /     
 h   h   t     t   p     sssss  ::   /     /     yyyyy  ..   sssss   t    ..   /     
                                                                                     
	<https://y.st./>
	Copyright © 2015 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>

	This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
	it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
	the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
	(at your option) any later version.

	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
	GNU General Public License for more details.

	You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
	along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org./licenses/>.
-->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<head>
		<base href="https://y.st./en/weblog/2015/12-December/08.xhtml" />
		<title>Groundspeak is in favor of government surveillance &lt;https://y.st./en/weblog/2015/12-December/08.xhtml&gt;</title>
		<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/link/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./icon.png" />
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/link/basic.css" />
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/link/site-specific.css" />
		<script type="text/javascript" src="/script/javascript.js" />
		<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
	</head>
	<body>
		<nav>
			<p>
				<a href="/en/">Home</a> |
				<a href="/en/a/about.xhtml">About</a> |
				<a href="/en/a/contact.xhtml">Contact</a> |
				<a href="/a/canary.txt">Canary</a> |
				<a href="/en/URI_research/"><abbr title="Uniform Resource Identifier">URI</abbr> research</a> |
				<a href="/en/opinion/">Opinions</a> |
				<a href="/en/coursework/">Coursework</a> |
				<a href="/en/law/">Law</a> |
				<a href="/en/a/links.xhtml">Links</a> |
				<a href="/en/weblog/2015/12-December/08.xhtml.asc">{this page}.asc</a>
			</p>
			<hr/>
			<p>
				Weblog index:
				<a href="/en/weblog/"><abbr title="American Standard Code for Information Interchange">ASCII</abbr> calendars</a> |
				<a href="/en/weblog/index_ol_ascending.xhtml">Ascending list</a> |
				<a href="/en/weblog/index_ol_descending.xhtml">Descending list</a>
			</p>
			<hr/>
			<p>
				Jump to entry:
				<a href="/en/weblog/2015/03-March/07.xhtml">&lt;&lt;First</a>
				<a rel="prev" href="/en/weblog/2015/12-December/07.xhtml">&lt;Previous</a>
				<a rel="next" href="/en/weblog/2015/12-December/09.xhtml">Next&gt;</a>
				<a href="/en/weblog/latest.xhtml">Latest&gt;&gt;</a>
			</p>
			<hr/>
		</nav>
		<header>
			<h1>Groundspeak is in favor of government surveillance</h1>
			<p>Day 00276: Tuesday, 2015 December 08</p>
		</header>
<p>
	My main goal for today was to get my calendar synchronized between my mobile and ownCloud on <a href="/en/domains/cepo.local.xhtml">cepo</a>.
	Unfortunately, I had misplaced (and potentially deleted) my backed up calendar data from <a href="/en/domains/chicken.local.xhtml">chicken</a>&apos;s ownCloud instance, so my only copy of my calendar data was on the mobile.
	I quickly found that Replicant does not offer a way to back up your calendar data to a file, an issue that it inherited from Android.
	I managed to find a third-party application that provides the feature, but ownCloud could not import the calendar file that the mobile application exported.
	There was no error message provided by ownCloud, it just acted like I had not initiated the import.
	I eventually got around this limitation by importing the calendar data to the new synchronized calendar using the same application that I had exported it with.
</p>
<p>
	DAVdroid, the mobile application that I use to synchronize my calendar (and contact list) has issues as well.
	Do not get me wrong, it is the best option that seems to be available, but getting it set up is a pain.
	First, it refuses to synchronize over a connection that is encrypted using an &quot;untrusted&quot; <abbr title="Transport Layer Security">TLS</abbr> certificate.
	In other words, DAVdroid would rather use a completely unencrypted and vulnerable connection than deal with a certificate that it does not like.
	It does not even offer an option to override this behavior.
	The author of this application created a second application to try to lessen the annoyance of this anti-feature: CAdroid.
	CAdroid downloads certificates from services so that you may import them into your local &quot;trusted&quot; certificate store.
	This is no substitute for a basic override option, but it gets the job done.
	I am not trying to verify identity with the certificate, I am only trying to fend off passive eavesdropping.
	Besides, some of the well-known and &quot;trusted&quot; certificate authorities have issued bogus certificates in the past.
	The trust model is flawed and should not be shoved down our throats.
	In any case, CAdroid refused to download my certificate from my owncloud domain because while the owncloud domain is on a subdomain of my main onion address, my certificate claims only to be valid for the second-level onion domain itself.
	Luckily, this certificate was also in use on the domain that it claimed to be for, so I just downloaded it from there, but I feared that DAVdroid would refuse this certificate.
	Both applications were written by the same author, so if the one refused to even download the certificate from the &quot;incorrect&quot; domain, would the other not refuse to <strong>*use*</strong> the certificate with that same &quot;invalid&quot; domain? I was fortunate enough to be wrong though.
	DAVdroid did put up a fuss about the certificate not matching the domain, but it did offer an override option as long as the certificate was in my local &quot;trusted&quot; certificate database.
</p>
<p>
	The next issue with DAVdroid is not even an issue with the application itself, but with the Android platform.
	DAVdroid has added support for an application called Tasks.
	If Tasks is installed, DAVdroid can synchronize to do lists over calDAV in addition to its regular calendar synchronization.
	The catch is that due to a bug in Android (which was inherited by Replicant), the order that applications are installed matters.
	To add to do list support in DAVdroid, one must first install Tasks, then remove and reinstall DAVdroid.
	This seems easy enough, but due to my higher-security-than-default settings, there were complications.
	After doing this, calendars were no longer being synchronized.
	The mobile said that no calendars were available! I tried removing both applications and reinstalling only DAVdriod, but the issue persisted.
	I eventually remembered that DAVdroid needed to have PrivacyGuard turned off in order to function.
	While I had PrivacyGuard turned off for DAVdroid before, removing and reinstalling it had switched it back on, as all new applications on my mobile have PrivacyGuard activated by default.
	If Android (and therefore Replicant) was not being picky about the order in which applications were installed, PrivacyGuard would never been switched back on for DAVdroid and everything would have gone smoothly.
</p>
<p>
	Groundspeak finally got back to me after almost a week, and said that <a href="https://support.groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=request.check&amp;id=642567gmeeju">The Geocaching website is not available over <abbr title="The Onion Router">Tor</abbr></a>.
	I already knew this, and I had originally asked them if there was any way that they would consider easing up on this restrictive policy.
	I decided to just tell them that I was saddened by their support of surveillance and that I would choose a different hobby.
	I half expect them to write back saying that they are not in favor of surveillance, but any policy that is against <abbr title="The Onion Router">Tor</abbr> use is in favor of government surveillance.
	If they do not write back, I will drop the issue, but if they write back saying that they are not in favor of surveillance, I will write back with a verbose response explaining that they cannot be anti-<abbr title="The Onion Router">Tor</abbr> without being pro-surveillance.
	It simply is not possible.
</p>
<p>
	I made the mistake of telling my mother about the news with Groundspeak.
	She had been the one to suggest that I contact them in the first place, so I thought that it would be a good idea to let her know how that had went.
	Bad idea.
	First, she got pissed off that I would rather avoid logging Geocache finds than drop my proxy, as if my not logging finds was some sort of attack on her.
	Then she went off about all the other things that makes her angry about me.
	She is mad that I am asexual, claiming that it is a bad attitude, as if it is not just an innate part of what I am like any other sexual orientation.
	She is mad that I do not have a child by now, when she was already six months pregnant at my age.
	She is mad that I am vegan, as she does not like people having a different diet than her in her household.
	She is mad that I hang out with friends online, saying that online friends are not real friends and are a bad influence on me.
	She is mad that I do not drive a motor vehicle.
	She is mad that I listen to free music, as if my choice in music has any impact on her.
	She is mad that I use free software, prefering that I my computer fight me the way that her&apos;s constantly fights her.
	She is mad that in the past, I went through a phase where I drew a lot of pixel art, somthing that i no longer do and no longer have time for, but that she thinks that I should have never done in the first place.
	She is mad that I quit working with stained glass, a hobby that I once had, but grew out of.
	She is mad that I do not have a cellular telephone so that she can pester me with text messages, because sending text messages to an email address is somehow so hard for her.
	She is mad that the mobile that i did choose to get was not an iPhone and not on the Verizon network.
	She is mad that I eat junk food, though it is not just that she wants me to give up potato chips.
	She also wants me to eat foods that would make me sick: meat and milk.
	She is mad that I set up two credit union accounts in Springfield, as if that is any of her business.
	And she is mad that I am learning Esperanto, a language that she considers useless.
	She is mad about several other things as well, though I cannot remember what they all are, as she went on for at least an hour.
	I desperately wanted to take notes, but that would have probably sent her further off the deep end.
</p>
<p>
	I will see if I can use what I have learned to appease her.
	First, I will try even harder not to mention anything about my days to her.
	Nothing good ever comes of it, and she is a walking land mine that I might step on if I mention anything that I have done or anything that I feel.
	I will not drop <abbr title="The Onion Router">Tor</abbr> as my proxy, it is a very important tool against surveillance.
	However, I will make no mention of it again, make no mention of being blocked from anything again, try not to make any mention of things on the Internet again, and if it comes up, I will lie and say that I have dropped the proxy.
	Being asexual is not something that I can change, or even that i would ever want to change.
	Nor will I ever have children.
	Nothing can be done on this front.
	If going non-vegan would somehow allow me to live forever, I admit, I would do it.
	But if I have to die eventually anyway, even if I would live a millennium, I would rather die prematurely than go non-vegan and then die later.
	If prodded to eat non-vegan foods, I will state this preference for death, hopefully getting my point across.
	She wants companionship in eating, so I will try simply being in the room while she eats, unable to touch any of the food myself.
	I will make no mention of my friends again.
	If it comes up, I will lie and say that I no longer speak with any of them.
	I have gone through the driver manual several times already, and I will suck it up and take the test.
	While I refuse to drive on my own behalf, I will drive on her&apos;s when requested.
	Though before I do that, I need to find a local photography studio, as I grew my hair out upon her request just so that she could get a photograph of me with her preferred hair style.
	I do not want to be stuck with such a photograph for eight years on my identification though, so I need to get the photograph then cut my hair before taking the test.
	I will make no mention of music again.
	I will pretend that I have no interest in music whatsoever.
	I cannot pretend to be interested in proprietary music, the effect on my mind would not be worth it, but I can avoid listening to music when she is around and pretend not to listen to music at all.
	I will do my best not to mention free software, or software of any kind.
	Obviously, mention of software may come up because of how prevalent it is in our lives, but I will keep such talk to a minimum.
	I cannot do anything about the pixel art.
	I no longer produce it, I cannot do anything about the fact that she is still mad that I ever did.
	There is likewise no time for stained glass work, especially with all the wasted time spent pretending to be what I am not.
	I will discuss with her tomorrow about getting a device and plan that she finds suitable and keep my Replicant fairly hidden.
	I will stop eating junk food.
	I will try to eat only healthy potato products such as mashed potatoes without added oils, milk replacement products such as soy and almond milk, B vitamin supplements (without them, I will damage my brain and get killer headaches), products that I can clearly see are plants without reading labels such as salads and apples, and protein supplements if needed.
	I will mention finances as little as possible.
	There is no need for her to know if I have multiple financial accounts or not.
	And I will practice Esperanto only when she is not around, pretending to have quit if need-be.
</p>
<p>
	My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
</p>
		<hr/>
		<p>
			Copyright © 2015 Alex Yst;
			You may modify and/or redistribute this document under the terms of the <a rel="license" href="/license/gpl-3.0-standalone.xhtml"><abbr title="GNU&apos;s Not Unix">GNU</abbr> <abbr title="General Public License version Three or later">GPLv3+</abbr></a>.
			If for some reason you would prefer to modify and/or distribute this document under other free copyleft terms, please ask me via email.
			My address is in the source comments near the top of this document.
			This license also applies to embedded content such as images.
			For more information on that, see <a href="/en/a/licensing.xhtml">licensing</a>.
		</p>
		<p>
			<abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr> standards are important.
			This document conforms to the <a href="https://validator.w3.org./nu/?doc=https%3A%2F%2Fy.st.%2Fen%2Fweblog%2F2015%2F12-December%2F08.xhtml"><abbr title="Extensible Hypertext Markup Language">XHTML</abbr> 5.1</a> specification and uses style sheets that conform to the <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org./css-validator/validator?uri=https%3A%2F%2Fy.st.%2Fen%2Fweblog%2F2015%2F12-December%2F08.xhtml"><abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr>3</a> specification.
		</p>
	</body>
</html>

